BELIZE CITY, Wed. July 7, 2021– In Belize, both major sports of football and basketball have missed the past year of local competition due to Covid-19 restrictions on “contact sports”; nonetheless, the coming weekend promises to be really action packed for many Belizeans who will be glued to their television sets to witness some top level international competition in football and basketball.
The NBA finals are in full swing with game 2 of the finals between the Eastern Conference champions, Milwaukee Bucks and the Western Conference champions, the Phoenix Suns scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, tipoff at 7:00 p.m. The Suns took game 1 last night, Tuesday. Game 3 of the best-of-7 games finals will be on Sunday, starting at 6:00 p.m.
In the Copa America (South American Football Championship), the third place match between Colombia and Peru takes place on Friday at 6:00 p.m.; while the championship match between archrivals Brazil and Argentina will kick off on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. In the semifinals, Brazil had clipped Peru, 1-nil, in regulation on Monday; while Argentina prevailed in penalties over Colombia after playing to a 1-1 stalemate in regulation on Tuesday.
Then in the UEFA Euro 2020 (European Football Championship), it will be England vs Italy in the final on Sunday at 12:00 noon. In the semifinals, Italy had prevailed in penalties (4-2) over Spain after drawing, 1-1, in regulation on Tuesday; and today, Wednesday, it was England with the 2-1 overtime victory over Denmark after they had finished deadlocked at 1-1 in regulation. No third place match is scheduled for UEFA 2020.
In our CONCACAF region, the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup Group Stage is set to kick-off on July 10 and run until July 20. Sixteen (16) teams have qualified to the Group Stage as follows:
Group A: Mexico, El Salvador, Curaçao and Trinidad & Tobago
Group B: USA, Canada, Martinique and Haiti
Group C: Costa Rica, Jamaica, Suriname and Guadeloupe
Group D: Honduras, Panama, Grenada and Qatar
Belize was in a Concacaf Nations League group along with Haiti, St. Lucia, Nicaragua, and Turks & Caicos Islands. Only our group winner, Haiti qualified to the Group Stage of the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Remember the Covid-19 protocols and try to stay safe, fans.